Thirty Thousand Amazon Workers Could Access Alexa Data, FTC Says
- The agency says the employees had access in 2018 and 2019
- Amazon disagrees with FTC claims and denies violating the law
Amazon Echo Plus devices.
Photographer: Chloe Collyer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Tens of thousands of Amazon.com Inc. employees once could listen to voice recordings of Alexa users, according to US regulators.
Some 30,000 Amazon workers had access to audio clips picked up by the company’s voice-activated speakers, the Federal Trade Commission said this week in a complaint about children’s privacy that the company settled for $25 million. The FTC’s tally of employees with access to Alexa recordings covers the period between August 2018 and September 2019, and it’s not clear how many personnel have such access today.